Different is Better: Reflecting on Tong Tejani’s First Year

One year ago, we formed Tong Tejani because we wanted to do something different. We knew our clients could benefit from a new approach. With decades of government contract law and tech business experience, we felt strongly that commercial technology innovation is vital to helping public sector entities enhance our national security and better serve our citizens. And we were confident we had a unique strategy for helping companies achieve their business goals.

A year later, our vision has been achieved. Even with a pandemic cropping up in our path, we officially launched our firm this past May—and we’ve been undeterred. We’ve continued to:

• Help our clients with strategic decisions, from bid protests to security counseling.

• Provide practical, action-oriented guidance that delivered results.

• Be responsive to our clients’ needs, becoming everything from sounding boards to program managers to help our busy clients stay on top of their ever-growing workloads.

• Hold ourselves to high standards for work delivered at efficient rates.

We’ve grown our practice by doubling down on our growth model. When we need additional bandwidth, we choose the right highly qualified contract attorney who is the best fit for a particular assignment. We believe these tangible successes validate our modern approach.

We’ve also confirmed, to our delight and relief, that we two partners are extremely complementary in our work ethic, styles and delivery. Compatibility and honesty are keys to maintaining a successful partnership, and luckily, this year shows that we are all that and a bag of chips. It’s been a joy to see our modern approach in action and working!

Learn more about what makes our firm different:

A Modern Approach

All companies are not the same. They have different needs and priorities and risk profiles. We have drawn on our experience as minority women to offer a new perspective—a modern approach. This approach takes our own differences, as well as those of our clients, into account. We meet our clients where they are.

A Different Billing Model

What if you didn't have to pay your attorney by the hour? Before starting our firm, we realized some companies prefer more predictable pricing. That’s why we offer fixed-fee alternatives and client-friendly pricing. This allows clients like a service-disabled veteran who runs an ambulance service to call us any time he wants to, without worrying about what it's going to cost.

Cost-Effective Scaling

Most law firms hire junior attorneys every year and need to find work for those attorneys. This often means that instead of getting the best attorney for the routine work, clients get whoever is available or needs hours. We decided instead to borrow a model from the technology sector to scale our business.

Tech companies that need to quickly scale up or down often choose a cloud-based network infrastructure to provide extra storage or computing power when they need it, and can choose the best solution for their needs. When the need disappears, so does the infrastructure.

We scale by establishing relationships with other attorneys and paralegals that we can leverage when we need help. We have established relationships with a select few highly qualified contract attorneys—seasoned professionals who know what they’re doing. When we have a project, we can pick the best attorney for it. That person will then send us a finished product, to which we then add more value and work our “magic.” This helps us keep costs down for our clients.

The Legal Concierge for Clients

Instead of thinking about clients as revenue-generating or marketing opportunities, we see the whole client. Sometimes you only need help with one aspect of your public sector legal and contracts work, we're here for you. You may discover that you need help with all of it, we've got you covered. Likewise, government contracts touch the entire product lifecycle, from research and development through sales and all the way to support. Since we have experience advising product development teams, we can help with many aspects of this process. From the mundane (project management to keep track of all those internal deliverables) to the esoteric (more information on a specific type of collaboration software) we will work together with you. We believe in creative problem solving, getting to yes, and getting back to our clients quickly—because we care about your success.

Actionable Advice, Tailored to Your Business

Early on, we made it our goal to give small businesses the same level of service and expertise that large, enterprise companies do. Responsiveness, care, diligence, and actionable recommendations—with a better pricing model. We don't just tell you what the law says. We provide you with options and actionable advice that will help you meet your specific business goals. Underrepresented populations, like women, veterans, and minorities? We have your back. We get you. In fact, we are committed to advancing diversity in the legal profession and everywhere else. We think different can be better.

~Joyce & Zohra

This article is not legal advice but gives a general summary for educational purposes only and is not intended to be comprehensive. Seek specific legal advice before taking or refraining from taking any action. Please see our full Legal Disclaimer